Art, Fashion

OMAR MIAN – RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

By Fused · On October 5, 2023

OMAR MIAN

RANDOM ENCOUNTERS

Silence

There he is.

Silence

There. Over there.

Silence

Omar is one of the quiet ones, one of the nice ones. He’s one of the few cool ones, too. He spreads silence around him the way a tree sheds shade.

The man’s a globe-trotting photographer who uses pictures to tell stories about the amazing things he sees on his travels.

Silence

‘Time is precious, so it’s important to fill it with what the heart desires. My love is with travel, art and design. Also important to me is spending time with friends and family. Life has a lot of twists, turns, ups and downs, all making new memories and teaching me new things. Photography is my aid to storytelling. It is a personal journey of little moments in time.’

Omar has a soft, low voice. He tends to avoid eye contact, but when he looks at you he looks deep into your eyes, then beyond.

Silence

‘I spent a lot of time abroad and my photography fast became my way of helping me to capture scenes I may or may not see again. For me it’s all about capturing a moment and the memories that surround that. A photo can remind you of conversations, sites, smells and sounds. Sometimes a photo can evoke emotions. Some make me wonder, laugh and cry. If it does any of these things, then I think it’s a good photo.’

Silence

OK. That was the introduction. Let’s now shift the focus for a moment, to gain a different perspective. Ready?

Phil Oh, Street Peeper. The snapper who’s now big with vogue.com. Kind of took over where Tommy Ton left off. Phil Oh is very random, yet very specific in his subject selection. If a good photograph is like a car crash, then Phil cashes in on quite a few as he’s always out there, on the road, at it.

Despite his noticeable personal style, Oh is the odd one in the scrum of what is known as ‘street style’ photographers style stalking at fashion events. Of course, this is anything but ‘street style’. In so many cases it’s all about product placement by PRs for brands, those in the know for those who want / need / must have social media coverage, online, plus any chance of page after glossy page of LOOK AT ME performance.

While so many are loud, manic and pushy, talking fifty shades of BS, fervently chasing after the latest attention seeker, Oh, like Omar Mian, is of the rare variety, who takes his time in sifting through and searching out for just the right soul to capture at just the right moment.

When Omar Mian began harvesting images at the likes of London Fashion Week at a time just before Lockdown #1, he felt able to approach subjects in a gentlemanly manner and introduce himself, engage. In the very recent September 2023 LFW feeding frenzy, Omar veered towards Fashion Scout up a stinkin’ Shoreditch backstreet rather than the arrivals area for big brand Burberry in Highbury Fields, seeking something more authentic, away from the aspirational fakes and flakes..

Omar’s approach is almost stealthy, yet appears leisurely. The agency-based photographers, of whom I am one (Camera Press) have a check list to get through, picture needs to quickly keyword. It’s all about buzz words for the metadata to secure a sale for agents abroad. Such work can be stressful within the chaotic free-for-all that LFW represents as a window of opportunity each season. Omar has no such pressure. He’s there for an audience of one, himself.

‘I don’t chase Instagram, photography competitions, anything of that sort. This is partly because I don’t really understand them. Why the heck should someone I neither know nor admire judge my work? And why should I care? What exactly elevates their opinion? It’s all so subjective. Maybe some day I’ll change my mind. Until then, my work is my work. The frame is my canvas. In that split second the photo is taken, the moment is over, never to return. Life goes on and the next photograph awaits.’

Explosive thought grenades. Then again, Omar’s like that. Razor sharp. Precise. I wouldn’t wanna cross him.

There he is, right this very minute, over there, with cameras that weigh him down. Today, Rolleiflex (3.5 and 2.8f) plus a Mamiya RZ67. Yesterday it was a Hasselblad 500cm, a 4×5 Toko Field Camera, an 8×10 Intrepid Camera.

He’s back. Done what he had to do.

‘My drive is creating images and recording moments before they pass.’

Silence

‘I also love the process of developing and darkroom printing for black and white. For colour I have a lab develop and scan the negatives. I do a few minor tweaks in Lightroom so that they look the exact way I’d want them to.’

Silence

‘For colour film stocks I use Kodak Portra 400, Portra 800, Fuji 400H. For Black and White, Fuji Acros and Ilford FP4, Ilford Delta 400.’

Silence

‘Sometimes I experiment, use expired film stocks.’